Every Day After
by AxxingerLK
Summary: In the event of Shepard's survival after taking down the reapers, what happens next? Beware: the life of a retired war hero contains considerably less fighting and considerably more grocery shopping than there ever was on the Normandy, but we all know Shepard. She probably won't be able to stay out of trouble for long. Brace for the existence of blue babies in the future.


This story continues from the most successful destroy ending in ME3. Since there are so many variables determining who Shepard is, I have just decided to use the Shepard of my favourite playthrough, mixed with some default stuff: paragon femshep who was a spacer and sole survivor, with default appearance, default name, biotic abilities, and Liara as bae.

Maybe some of you like your Shepard better, yet are too lazy to write your own damn story, so if you whine enough about it _maybe_ I'll consider writing something for you (yes, even for one of those endings when Shepard dies like a pleb or becomes a god)

But I digress, let us begin.

* * *

"… _Together, we can build a future greater than any one of us could imagine.  
A future paid for by those who fought and died alongside us. A future that many will never see."_

Admiral Steven Hackett's all-frequency speech echoed throughout a deep chamber of the now broken Citadel, floating in Earth's lower orbit.

 _"And while we still have many challenges ahead of us… We can face them together."_

The orange glow of an omni-tool receiving a forced transmission colored the walls of the metal cave.

" _And we will honor those who died to give us that future."_

With those final words, the transmission ended. But just as silence had settled in the chamber, a rustling sound echoed. A deep breath was drawn.

Commander Jane Shepard slowly opened a single eye. Despite the pain it caused, her bruised lips curled into a faint smile. While nothing had yet settled in, the most beautiful sight she had ever seen was in front of her. Through a large hole in the opposite wall, sealed off from space by an emergency mass effect field, she saw the horizon of Earth, from over a thousand kilometers high up in the sky. And as the tomorrow that Shepard had brought dawned over London, the edge of Sol poked out from the other side of that rounded horizon. The Blue Marble shimmering like a pond in spring, the sun's brilliant shine restoring hope to the world, and the countless stars behind it reminding every survivor what it took to get there. The image was so peaceful. More peaceful than any other time Shepard had visited Earth.

She let out a strained groan as she tried to make sense of her surroundings. Her whole body was in pain, and any attempts to move an arm or a leg were in vain. After enough bull-headed shots at sitting up, she resigned to the situation. She laid back, her head falling to the side, and closed her eye. She had already stared at the peaceful image long enough, and the color had started fading from it. There was nothing more to look at. Of all the things she felt… happy, relieved, sad, hurt, and tranquil… her tiredness hit the heaviest.

"… Nh… Hhh… H- heh… F-… figure, since I saved the galaxy… Mmmh… might as well t- take a nap to celebrate…" Shepard said to herself, her dry throat barely managing to sound the words. Just then, as she was about to find her well deserved eternal rest, a dear memory came to her mind.

It was a little short of a year ago, when her romantic partner Liara T'soni had first visited the new Normandy. They held hands, standing in the middle of the commander's cabin. Shepard looked into her eyes. They were filled with tears. She never could bear the sight of her crying. "I spent _two years_ mourning you, so if we're going to try this…" Liara said, holding back the rest of her tears. "I need to know you're always coming back."

Those last few words echoed in Shepard's mind as she laid there, limp and nearly unconscious on a pile of rubble.

She opened her eyes once more, and she started to fully grasp the situation. She regained enough control of her tired body to lift up her left hand from her stomach and look at it. It was covered in blood, her own blood, but it was still moving. She had survived. A devastating Thresher Maw attack on Akuze, an attempted bombing of Eden Prime by reaper-worshipping Geth, countless other encounters with said Geth, standing almost at the centre of Sovereign's destruction, _dying_ , a collector trap that her own boss at the time set her up for, what seemed like a suicide mission, and now this: taking down the greatest threat that the Milky Way had ever known. If she had lived through all that, she found herself thinking, that there was no way in hell that she was going to die on a pile of scrap in a puddle of her own blood. Besides, with her resourcefulness, sooner or later, Liara would probably find out that she woke up for a moment here, and if she finds out that Shepard just gave up after coming back once more, she would consider volunteering for going to hell just to avoid Liara's wrath a thousand years later, when she would join her in heaven.

She lifted up her right hand to flick across her wrist, activating her omni-tool's communicator, automatically establishing a connection to her most recent caller. However, when she tried to speak, to even find out who it was she had called, nothing more than groaning and wheezing escaped her.

"… Shepard?" Asked what was clearly Admiral Hackett's voice, in disbelief. "Holy shit, is that really you?"

"Hnn… Shhhn-… J- juh… Jane... Shepard... reporting in, sir." Shepard swallowed some gathering phlegm. "We won."

"I know, Shepard. It's been almost three hours now since the crucible successfully fired. You did good out there, better than anyone could have ever hoped from one woman. What's your status?"

"… Nnnh… Uhh… I dunno, Admiral… I… I think I'm… still on the Citadel. Ughn, there's… so much blood... I don't know if I'll make it this time..."

"The heck you won't." Hackett said, with determination backing his voice. He expanded the call to cover several more frequencies, focused around the forces on Earth, "I want any re-enabled medical ships or shuttles in the vicinity of Earth to head to these coordinates and trace the broadcasting signal." He included the coordinates as an attachment with a single tap, "Commander Shepard is still alive, but her vitals are critical. Repeat, Commander Shepard is _alive_. If the strength of a single woman was enough to save an entire galaxy, the strength of an entire galaxy should be more than enough to save a single woman in order to return the favour. We all owe our lives to her, so get on it. Hackett out." He said and reduced the call back to just him and Shepard.

For what seemed like an eternity to her, Hackett forced them into a conversation and kept it going, concerning him whenever she went silent, but she always raised her voice again no more than a second after he thought that her time was up. During that time, he managed to find out what had happened. The circumstances of Admiral David Anderson's death, the Illusive Man showing clear signs of indoctrination and shooting himself, the nature of the Catalyst, and Shepard's choice to destroy the reapers once and for all. She felt herself starting to slip away several times, but sheer will and determination helped her focus. After all, Liara had given her something to come back to. If she could just hang in there a few more minutes, she would be able to see her again. That specific thought is what kept her going.

"That's a tough choice, Commander." Hackett finally said after a long moment of silence. "But for what it's worth, I believe you made the right one. The fact alone that a machine that's possibly billions of years old can look at the monstrous slaughter it brings to the galaxy every fifty-thousand years and say that it's a solution to _anything_ just goes to show that, even in ancient times, people made mistakes. Sometimes with severe consequences. Now it's up to us to make sure nothing like that is ever created again."

"Yeah… Ngh… Call me short-sighted, but I couldn't let those things live… Not after all that they've done. It's like… the collector base, only much more horrible and inhumane in every imaginable way."

"Couldn't agree more, Commander." Hackett replied, and was momentarily distracted by a blinking light on his communicator. "Good news, Commander. Looks like someone managed to bring a shuttle back into flying shape after the blast. It's now filled with paramedics and closing in on your position. Do you see anything?"

Shepard forced herself into an upright position, overcoming the tremendous pain that was pulsating through her. Looking out of the familiar hole, she thought that she could see a distant blue dot getting closer and closer. She tried to stand up and shuffle towards it, but her legs were still just as numb as her whole body was the first time she had woken up. "Yeah… Yeah, I think I see them." She said, groaning in pain.

Not a moment too soon, the shuttle began rapidly approaching the location of Shepard's heat signature, which was alarmingly low at this point. It pulled up right next to the visible breach in the Citadel's wall and extended its side-opening to create a tunnel that passed through the sealing barrier, linking the atmospheres, a function meant for extractions just like this. A handful of medical personnel flooded out from the tunnel, securing Shepard's position and running a quick scan. After determining that there were no critical head, neck, or spine injuries, they proceeded to lift her aboard the shuttle and continue with the main issue, her severe loss of blood. She looked up to see many faces surrounding her in the shuttle: Human, Salarian, Turian, Asari, and even a lone Drell. None of which, however, she was in a state to recognize.

" _Don't worry, Commander. You have saved me twice now, so I will do my best to save you just this once."_ Shepard heard a familiar French-accented female voice say just before blacking out.

* * *

So that's the first chapter of this story, maybe not that long, but if the goddess is with me, there will be lots more to come. Gimme a heads up though if I'm writing utter crap so I'm not just wasting my time at that point. Or, hey, if you liked something about it, it would be nice to get some confirmation of that too. Just so that I don't default to thinking that it's crap if, by chance, all I get it silence.

Thanks in advance, either way.


End file.
